Machine for filling cartridge-magazines, cartridge-belts, stripchargers, and the like



H. R. NORTHOVER. MACHINE FOR FILLING CARTRIDGE MAGAZINES, CARTRIDGE BELTS, STRIP CHARGERS, AND THE LIKE- APPLICATION FILED MAR. 5, 1918- 1,395,928.- Patented Nov. 1,1921.

Jun /762 071 firlyfofiari JIGrZhovet UNE MACHINE FOR FILLING CARTRIDGE-MAGAZINES, CARTRIDGE-BELTS, STRIP- CHARGERS, AND THE LIKE.

Application filed March 5,

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HARRY ROBERT NOR- THOVER, a subject of the King of Great Britain, and resident of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Dominion of Canada, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Machines for Filling Cartridge-Magazines, Cartridge- Belts, Strip-Chargers, and the like, of which the following is a specification.

This invention has reference to machines or appliances for filling the'cartridge belts and strip-chargers of machine guns, and

for transferring or feeding cartridges from r a hopper or the like into machine-gun and similar cartridge receptacles and cartridge containers generally, other than the rotary pan or drum-type magazine s used in connection with the Lewis gun.

In all mechanical belt-fillers and other machines for loading or filling cartridges into strip-chargers, magazines and the like, it is most essential to avoid blanks or unfilled cartridge-pockets or cartridge-receptacles, as ifa belt, strip or magazine is fed into or applied to a machine or automatic gun with any pocket or receptacle not containing a cartridge, a stoppage in the automatic firing action of the said gun will occur wherever the blank or unfilled pocket or the like exists. It will also be realized that when belts, charger-strips or magazines are filled mechanically, blanks such as above referred to would be caused if, on a pocket or cartridge receptacle being brought to the cartridge-receiving position, the cartridge-feed device of the machine failed to introduce a cartridge into the said jpocket or receptacle and this failure in the cartridge-feed was followed by a movement of the belt, strip or magazine such as would take the unfilled pocket or receptacle thereof away from the said cartridge-receiving position and brings the next pocket or receptacle into alinement with the feed device.

In the specifications of my applications for Letters Patent'Serial Nos. 176863 and Number 220,666, I described, in its application to machines for filling therotary pan or drum-type magazines of the Lewis gun, means for positively preventing the occurrence of blanks in Lewis magazines, consisting of an automatic stop mechanism which governs or controls the alternating operations of the cartridge-feed and panfeed mechanisms of the machine in such a Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov; 1, 1921.

1918. Serial No. 220,667.

way that it is only possible for the pan to be fed around or rotated after the cartridge-feed mechanism has operated properly to lntroduce a cartridge into the magazine, whereas if any conditions should arise or be setwup within the machine that would prevent a cartridge being so inserted, then the stop mechanism operates automatically and immediately to arrest the working of the machine and prevent any movement of the magazine that would take the unfilled cartr dge-space away from or beyond the cartrldge-receiving position.

The object of the present invention is to obviate the occurrence of blanks in connection with the mechanical filling of the lmachine-gun 'belts,*strip-chargers and cartridge-magazines or receptacles generally (other than Lewis-gun magazines), and this ob ect I propose to attain by the mechanism hereinafter described and pointed-out in the appended claims.

The present invention is capable of'applicatlon to any kind of machine for filling belts, strip chargers and magazines of the description herein specified, but I propose, by way of example, to describe the same in its application to a machine-gun belt-filling machine in which the cartridges are fed or forced endwise (bullet-end first) from a hopper or like receptacle into the pockets or clips of the belt; the cartridge-feed device, of the said machine consisting of a reciprocating plunger or slide which in practice is geared to the mechanism or device that givesthe feed movementto the belt after each cartridge-inserting operation-of the plunger.

Figure 1 is a sectional elevation of a part of a belt-filling machine of the above-mentioned type, showing the manner in which an automatic stop mechanismcmay be applied thereto in accordance with the present invention.

, Fig. 2 is a sectional elevation of the stop mechanism separately; the parts being shown in the positions in which they are held by cartridge weight so long as the ma- 1 chine is functioning normally.

Fig. 3 is a similar view to Fig-.-2, but shows howthe mechanism locks the cartridge-feed plunger when there are no cartridges in the hopper. 1

Fig. 4 is a plan of the Said stop mechanism.

The same letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several figures of the drawings. 1

In Fig. 1, I have shown only the cartridge supply hopper a, the cartridge-inserting plunger b and the automatic stop mechanism, since the arrangements for guiding the belt in front of the hopper outlet a for giving the intermittent feed movement to the said belt, and for locking the belt with a pocket in alinement with the said outlet a during the cartridge-inserting operation of the plunger (which are not illustrated in the drawings) may be of any suitable orconvenient kind, such as commonly used in machines of this character.

The plunger 6 works in suitable guides on the bed-plate b and it is driven or reciprocated in any convenient manner, while the cartridge-hopper is arranged so that it will deliver cartridges successively into the we path of the said plunger and provide for the said cartridges being forced, by the forward stroke of the plunger, endwise (bullet first) through the hopper-outlet into the pockets of the belt.

The stop 'mechanism for preventing blanks in filling, together with the means for governing or controlhng same, are so constructed, arranged and timed to operate that the stopping of the working in the event of a cartridge failing to position itself in the path of'the feed plunger can only occur at one particular point in the cartridge and belt-feed cycle, viz., at the instant when the belt-feed device has completed the movement that brings the next empty pocket into register with the hopper-outlet and the plunger is due to commence its cartridge feed point stroke; the object of this timing of the stop action being to insure that, when the said stop device i disengaged to allow the ma chine to resume working, all the parts shall be correctly positioned for effecting the feed of a cartridge into the said empty pocket during the first motion of the machine.

The stop mechanism embodied in the machine shown in the drawings is carried on the inside of a bracket-plate b which is suitably supported on the base of the machine 'and upon which the plunger b reciprocates.

It comprises a system of counterweighted levers, viz., a control lever i and a plungerstop lever j, the lever comprisin two parallel side plates disposed externally of the lever as shown in F i 4 and bein 7 ta O pivotallyhungfroma bracket 7' attached to the inside of the plate b the end farthest from the hopper carrying the counterweight 3', while its hopper end is furnished with a cartridge contact piec e j that is located in a hole in the slide plate 12 immediately underneath the bottom of the hopper.

cartridge drops from the hopper into its feed This ar 'rangement provides that as each successive formed in the bracket-plate at some dis tance inward of the cartridge contact j.

The distance between the centers of the cartridge contact j and the plunger stop 7' is less than the length of the stroke of the plunger, ind the relative dispositions of the parts I), 7'", 7' are such that, during the greater portion of its reciprocation, the said plunger is riding either over the contact 7' and the stop j, or over the stop only, and this renders it impossible for 7' or f" to be lifted or made to project over the top of the plate 6 by the action of the counterweight on the two levers, but as the plunger comes to the end of moment there are cartridges in the hopper ready to fall, the bottom cartridge drop into the feed position on top of the control lever'contact 7', when the weight of the cartridges bearing on said contact will counterweight the tendency of the counterweight to lift the plunger stop and the continued rotation of the operating crank of the machine will impart the working or feeding stroke to the plunger and the said bottom cartridge will be fed or thrust into the pocket of the belt that is then in register with the hopper outlet, and as the plunger advances it rides first over the stop. j and then over the contact 7' so that before the cartridge weight is taken off the control lever by thev plunger working under the pile of cartridges in the hopper, the stop mechanism is already under the restraint of the said over-riding plunger and so cannot possibly operate to arrest the working of the machine. 1

If, however, at the moment when the plunger slides clear of the stop j, there is not a sufficient weight of cartridges ready to fall on to the control lever contact and overcome the counterweight, then the said counterweight immediately takes control and byoscillating the levers 1' 7", lifts the stop 3' into the path of the plunger as shown in Fig. 3, and also causes the cartridge contact to project upon the surface of the bracket-plate This locks the plunger in the position shown in Fig. 3 and renders it impossible for the continued rotation of the driving crank to impart a useless or non-effective forward movement to the plunger, and as the belt-feed device is geared to, or workedfrom the same operating mechanism as, the cartridge feeder, it follows that the looking or arresting of the plunger simultaneously and positively locks the belt-feed device and thus prevents any movement being imparted to the belt that would result in a blank or unfilled pocket in the same.

The stop mechanism automatically liberates or releases the cartridge-feed and beltfeed immediately a sufiicient weight of cartridges falls onto the control lever contact j to overcome the counterweight, when the resultant oscillation of the levers removes the plunger stop from the path of the plunger and leaves the said feed device free to carry on its respective functions on rotation of the operating handle being resumed.

The application of my invention to machines for feeding cartridges endwise into the clips of machine-guns, strip-chargers, and also to machines for feeding cartridges endwise or sidewise into the cartridge magazines or cartridge feeding receptacles of machine and automatic guns (other than the magazines of the Lewis automatic gun) differs in no essential respect from its application to machines for filling machine-gun belts as herein described.

I wish it to be understood that the manner of arranging or applying the stop mechanism to such machines may be varied or modified as may be desired to suit or adapt the same to the particular kind of cartridge feeding or cartridge-inserting devices or mechanism that is embodied in the said machine; and, further, instead of arranging the stop mechanism so that it will function directly to lock the cartridge-feed device as in the particular machine above described, it may, in some cases, be arranged to act on the belt, strip or magazine feeder, or on the operating mechanism or device from which the cartridge and belt, or their feeder, obtain their alternating movements.

Having described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patcut is- 1. In an automatic stop mechanism for cartridge-feeding machines, the combination with a cartridge-feed device, and a hopper or guide down which the cartridges are fed by gravity into the range of action of said device, of 'a system of counterweighted levers normally restrained by the cartridges, and a member controlled by said levers and locking the feed device in the event of a cartridge failing to position itself before said feed device.

2. A machine of the character described comprising a cartridge-feed device, a hopper or guide down which the cartridges are fed by gravity into the range of action of said device, a counterweighted control lever normally restrained by the cartridges that fall to the feed position, and a stop-lever actuated by the control lever and having means for automatically locking the feed-device when said levers are released from restraint.

3. In machines of the character described, the combination with a reciprocating plunger and a hopper down which cartridges are fed into the range of action of said plunger, of a counterweighted control-lever normally restrained by the cartridges, and a lever controlled by the counterweighted lever and having a stop adapted to be projected into the range of action of the plunger when the counterweighted lever is released from restraint.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification.

HARRY ROBERT N ORTHOVER. 

